Caught on tape: Dem official says he’s ‘glad’ Scalise got shot

A Nebraska Democratic Party official was removed from his post on Thursday after an audio recording surfaced of him saying he’s “glad” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise got shot last week.

Phil Montag, now-former co-chair of the state party’s technology committee, was recorded saying he wishes Scalise, R-La., were “dead.”

“His whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to [expletive] kick people off [expletive] health care. I’m glad he got shot,” Montag said in the audio recording. “I wish he was [expletive] dead.”

The audio was posted on YouTube. Nebraska Democratic Chairwoman Jane Kleeb confirmed to FOX 42 that the voice on the audio recording was, in fact, Montag’s.

“We obviously condemn any kind of violence whether it’s comments on Facebook or comments in a meeting,” Kleeb said. “Our country is better than the political rhetoric that is out there from both the far right and the far left.”

Montag, in an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, said his words were taken out of context and he was “horrified” by the shooting.

“I did not call for the congressman’s death,” Montag reportedly said.

Kleeb removed Montag from his post just one week after Nebraska Democratic Black Caucus Chairwoman Chelsey Gentry-Tipton was asked to resign over a Facebook post about Scalise and the attack on Republicans. She did not.

“Gentry-Tipton had posted in a thread about the shooting: ‘Watching the congressman crying on live tv abt the trauma they experienced. Y is this so funny tho?,’” the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Later, in the same thread, she reportedly stated, “The very people that push pro NRA legislation in efforts to pad their pockets with complete disregard for human life. Yeah, having a hard time feeling bad for them.”